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Monthly Archives: July 2013

Living in a caravan all summer has a very low tech feeling and I liked to continue that by taking primarily analogue photos and putting them in an old fashioned photo album.
This week my first roll taken at work at the parade festival was developed this week, so here the start of my scrapbook.

With all of this low tech fun I also don’t have a laptop here, which means this is all done by phone (long live the smartphone) and I do hope it still looks good on the big screen.

In my opinion you can never have too much sewing equipment and therefore also never enough storage. I found this little red sewing box at a charity shop the other day. It was in need of a new coat of paint and one of the wooden bits on the side was broken so I could take it home for a mere £1.

The next day at a flea market I found another sewing box, completely filled with crafty bits and bobs. I picked it up for £5 and didn’t look until I got home what was actually inside. Going through it I could throw most of it away -short strings of thread, mysterious plastic circles- but it also had everything to make a tapestry, who knows I can give a go at that one day, and a ‘woollen-flower-maker’. In the bottom was written ‘April 1960’, so guess thats when the box was first purchased.

It had a lot of scratches on the top, so I decided to paint both sewing boxes. There was some white paint lying about, so used that. 2 weeks later I still haven’t repaired the small one so I can only properly open half, but the big one looks as new again.

ps. Grandmothers tip on getting paint off your hands: rub them in with butter. I didn’t believe it at first, but it works really well and as a plus it doesn’t dry out your hands (like most chemical stuff does) it actually moisturises your hands at the same time as well. From now on I always have a pack of butter when I go painting.

You might have noticed my love for bbc series ‘Call the Midwife’. In the last episode of season 2 they all work together to crochet a granny square blanket. I’ve been intending to learn to crochet for a while and as a couple of people on Tumblr started to make a Midwife crochet blanket I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

Someone referred to this youtube clip and this is finally one I completely understood and I can follow. My first attempt is still a bit wobbly, but I now get the technique so I’m hoping to make loads of squares over this summer.

I have just started working at the theatre festival ‘Parade’. Walking around all day you want to keep your hands free, but not have a bag over your shoulder all the time. My -very practical- colleague wears a tool belt, but as wearing jeans is painful enough for my fashion sense, you won’t find me dressed like a handyman.

Inspired by the bar staff I made myself an apron to stuff my tools etc in. I used oilcloth fabric, as it’s sturdy, waterproof and easy to clean. I worked off the edges with bright blue bias binding and made a wider white bias binding for the ties. The side pockets are perfect for a bottle of water and my phone. In the centre I sewn an elastic band to organise stuff.

For the rest of summer I’ve got the most cheerful tool belt and always everything by hand, and I don’t need to worry anymore if my skirts have pockets or not!